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Topic: Replacing Tires Due to Age????? (Read 35914 times)

We just bought a 2006 Tiffin Allegro on a Ford chassis with only 4000 miles on it. The Good Year load range F 19.5 tires were made in week 42 of 2005. I am familiar with the conventional wisdom of replacing tires after 7 years, but I wonder. The sidewalls are free of any surface cracks and needless to say, no tread wear. I asked a friend who is a retired Greyhound bus driver, and his take on it was to leave them on and just watch them closely. He said that if cracks develop at the margin of the sidewall and tread, to start looking for new ones because of the possibility of tread separation. What about this? He also said that Greyhound will not buy Michelin because of weak sidewalls - go with Good Year, Bridgestone, or Toyo. Opinions??

I replaced tires on my MH at six (6) years old because of age. All tires looked good, but read too many posts of blowouts with older tires. I had Toyo tires on the MH and replaced with Toyo's. Good ride, quite and good price. Tires are 255 R70 22.5 and paid less than $1900 for six (6) tires, out the door. I have been very pleased with my Toyo tires and recommend them.CarlGeo

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seilerbird

I think it would be foolish to keep on driving an RV on tires that were 7 years old, no matter what they look like on the outside. There is the way they look on the inside to consider also. A blowout on an RV is a whole different story than a blowout on a car. A blown out tire can do thousands of dollars of damage to a wheel well and things like hydraulic lines, brake lines, air lines, gas lines, etc. Just for the peace of mind alone it is worth getting new tires every 7 years.

Although my Michelins had good tread and no surface cracks I replaced them at seven years.

When they were installed I took the opportunity to have solid metal extension valve stems installed on the duals so adding and checking air is now very easy. They are made by DuallyValve and I got them from HERE

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Clay (WA5NMR), Lee (Wife), Katie & Kelli (cats), Sali (toy poodle)Settled down after full timing for eleven years and snowbirding for one year in a 2004 Winnebago 35N Sightseer, Workhorse W 20 Chassis. Honda toad

I am very leery of old tires because we had a front blow out on properly inflated 7 year old tires that "looked" like new on our previous motorhome. Not only did the blow out cost us time, but it nearly took us into the median of the highway and also damaged generator parts (located a few feet behind it) as it came apart. I just replaced the tires on our "newer to us" motorhome that we just bought with 6 year old tires that looked good. We also replaced them with Toyo's and are very happy with the ride. Ours are 245/70R19.5 M143's. I would suggest that if you don't want to spend the money to replace all six tires, you might at least consider putting new ones on the front.

I asked a friend who is a retired Greyhound bus driver, and his take on it was to leave them on and just watch them closely. He said that if cracks develop at the margin of the sidewall and tread, to start looking for new ones because of the possibility of tread separation. What about this? He also said that Greyhound will not buy Michelin because of weak sidewalls - go with Good Year, Bridgestone, or Toyo. Opinions? ?

Ask your friend how many miles Greyhound puts on it's tires each year and how frequently (time wise) do they replace them? Greyhound's tires probably wear out, motor home tires age out. I've put over 175,000 miles on 3 sets of Michelins. Never had a sidewall issue.

You can't tell much about a tire's health from the outside. Obviously deep cracks are a bad sign, but no cracks or tiny cracks doesn't mean a whole lot. Dismounting the tires and looking at the inside of the carcass is a better measure, but that's fairly expensive.

The 4000 miles is itself a negative - tires need exercise for them to keep the rubber flexible and the chemical preservative moving around in the rubber. The metal cords in the body can also take a set if they stay too long in one position. Those tires would be in better shape if they had at lest 2500 miles/year on them.

Those tires may be good for up to 10 years, but the risk increases rather substantially in years 8-10 and the cost of a failure in terms of damage to the body of the coach (and maybe even your own body) can be high. There is no magic number for replacement - it's a classic "your mileage may vary" situation. I can't tell you the right answer - can only advise you of the risks.

I too would be tempted to try to get another year out of them, but also would not be surprised to get a blowout while traveling [Definitely have roadside assist coverage]. How upset would you be to be stick on the side of the road somewhere and have to wait a couple hours while they find a tire and bring it out to you. Or if the body and wiring were damaged and the trip spoiled? It's a difficult tradeoff when big tires are so expensive.

The Greyhound guy has no experience at all in aged tires. Greyhound probably gets only a year from a set of tires before they have worn the tread away.

Let the sea of your pants talk to you about the tires until they are replaced. If they go anything like the ones I had, there is a very brief vibration before they let go. Just enough to make you wonder if you lost a wheel weight or if it might be the road.

When the first one went, I was at speed (70 mph just north of Daytona trying to keep up with traffic at night) and I didn't get stopped until there was some pretty heavy damage. Tires 2 and 3 were easier since I was paying closer attention and felt the vibration earlier on. I was able to stop safely and in time to prevent another wheel well from being destroyed.

Make sure the tires are up to pressure too.

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Common sense to many of us is, unfortunately, the higher education some strive to attain.

I wam up my MH and take it out on a short trip every other month in the winter time. So it never sits more than two months at a time. I hope this will excercise the tires. Better that sitting for 6 months.

We bought our 2005 Class A last spring , with original tires, 32,000 miles on it. We set off on our first cross country road trip this summer, and agonized over whether or not to replace thge tires before we left. With all the expense of getting the RV, and gearing up for the trip we decided not to replace. We then spent 10 hours stranded in the nevada desert, with no cell service, after a blow out of the front drivers side tire. Not only was the tire blown, and the vacation schedule shot, the tire blew out ALL the hydraulics for the RV. We had no slides, and no levelling jacks for the remainder of our trip. It also blew out a wall of the storage bin nearest the tire. The parts for the hydraulics had to be manufactured, so we camped all summer long in a rocking and rolling sardine can! .. AND, we have had the RV at the shop since October, it is now the end of December, and it is STILL not ready. I suggest you replace the tires. Thankfully no one was injured in the blowout, but.... the only good thing to come of it was that there was no sales tax in Oregon so we saved a nice chunk of change by buying six tires out there !

I started this whole thread and I want to expand on the Michelin thoughts. I had a new Bounder in early '93, and driving through Fountain Hills, AZ at 25 MPH, the sidewall of the right inner dual blew out. Sounded like a bomb. About 3 months later, another one on the rear blew out the sidewall on US89 north of Flagstaff, AZ. We then lost another one on the rear west of Edmonton, AB about 2 months after that. A tire dealer in Great Falls, MT got permission from the regional manager to swap them all out at that point (three blowouts on six almost new tires). We installed Toyos and never had another problem. Incidentally, we had the rig weighed after that (all four wheels individually) and we were well under the tire ratings weight-wise. A Michelin problem? Maybe, in spite of favorable experiences of others. It reinforces what my friend said relative to Greyhound and Michelins. Keep the comments coming - this is a topic important to us all.

If these vehicles are so vulnerable to a tire failure... maybe it's a doomed activity? Age is only one factor in a very complex equation of factors that determine whether a tire fails or not. I don't read any 18 wheeler forums, do the big trucks which carry 80,000 lb or more have these catastrophic failures? Why bother?

I bought a Thor Pinnacle 1992 model in 1992 to live in while I rebuilt my house after hurricane ANdrew. The tires were Michilin made in 1991, don't remember the week now but in 1993 I blew the first tire and then in 1994 I had 2 more blow. I replaced them with Bridgestones and drove the coach in until 1999. I still believe the Michilins were defective and have never had Michilins on anything since.

I ran Yokohama on the steers and Goodyear on the rears on my semi...never had a blow out but had a couple on the trailers I pulled...don't know which brand they were but do remember often they were Michelin's ...just an observation.

trucks have blowouts, I have myself. The difference is, truck do wear out tires more often, they don't have any close fenders in the back and only the air brake components out by the wheel area. Those brake components can and do get trashed but are not as complex or expensive to repair as ochidoc's hydraulics.All of my blown tires were non-events, no steer axles and no damage.

Well I have to revise my posting.....I can no longer say I've never had a steer axle tire blow out ....the date code had 049 as the numerals in it...making it the 4th week of 2009 if I read it correctly..checking out new steer tires this week...Costco my first look see.

Does the tire age basis for buying new tires apply to cars, pickups, wheelbarrows, bicycles, tractors, go karts, atv's, motorcycles, show cars, etc? What about spare tires laying on the shelf? Just curious.

Does the tire age basis for buying new tires apply to cars, pickups, wheelbarrows, bicycles, tractors, go karts, atv's, motorcycles, show cars, etc? What about spare tires laying on the shelf? Just curious.

Yes, tires age even if they're not being used. Most vehicle tires get worn out before they get too old, but tires aging on shelves is a real concern. It's important for RVers to check the age of new tires they purchase because they will need every month of life they can get.

Smaller vehicle tires tend to wear out before they age out. Spare tires age just like tires in use, even quicker if they aren't being exercised by use.

The "spare" tire on our car is a really small tire compared to the regular tires. It's never even touched the ground. It gets no sun, it's in a wheel well, never to be seen. It would never occur to me that it should be replaced at 5 years. I guess that's why we have CoachNet?